Jim Pattison Group ‘no longer interested’ in building Great Wolf Lodge in South Surrey

The Jim Pattison Group has told the City of Surrey that they are “no longer interested” in building a Great Wolf Lodge water park resort in South Surrey.

Surrey City Development Corporation president Michael Heeney told Peace Arch News by email Thursday that Pattison Group advised the city of the decision in October.

“Haven’t heard anything from them since,” Heeney said.

The $150-million, 400-room hotel and water park was first publicly mentioned during Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner’s state-of-the-city address in May.

In her speech, Hepner referred to the project as one she “would like to see off the drawing board” and expressed a desire to reduce the approval time of the project by half. She did not name the project during her presentation, but Great Wolf Lodge vice-president Keith Simmonds confirmed the following month that it was a Great Wolf Lodge water park resort.

Jim Pattison Group purchased exclusive franchise rights to the Great Wolf Lodge brand in Canada in 2004. Currently, there’s only one Great Wolf Lodge in the country.

Discussions about Great Wolf Lodge coming to B.C. can be traced back to 2015. At the time, the Squamish Chief newspaper reported that Jim Pattison Group had purchased a two-acre parcel of land in Squamish for a hotel, but required more land for the resort.

Simmonds told PAN in June that Squamish was also an area under consideration.